KGW takes local newscast into HD era

KGW, the Belo-owned NBC affiliate in Portland, OR, began broadcasting its daily news programming in HDTV earlier this year.

For the HD transition, the station equipped six HD cameras with Fujinon XA22X7.5BES compact HD studio lenses. Three are mounted on Thomson Grass Valley LDK-4000 studio cameras currently used at KGW NewsChannel 8’s main studio in Portland to produce the studio portions of the station’s news broadcasts in HD.

The others will be used at KGW’s planned remote studio located within Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square. Currently under construction, the remote studio will broadcast live morning and noon newscasts. The remote studio will begin operation in June.

Fujinon’s XA22X7.5BES lens was designed with an eye toward stations using ENG-type cameras for studio applications as well as those employing smaller field production units.

The XA22x7BES is a lightweight box lens with higher optical quality than standard ENG-type lenses, combined with the zoom and focus performance of a larger studio lens.